Community Highlight: Flat River Outreach Ministries
Podcast Transcription
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Maddy: Well hi everyone, welcome to Money Talk podcast. I'm your host Maddy and with me I have a special guest. This is Wendie Preiss with the Flat River Outreach Ministries. Welcome. Thank you for being here.
Wendie: Thank you, thank you. Thank you for the invitation.
Maddy: Of course.
Wendie: Yes, so I'm Wendie and I've been with Flat River Outreach Ministries for just over five years and joined the organization actually as a volunteer in the donation room for our thrift store and then moved into Executive Director role after applying for that position. And it's been a lot of fun and just really, truly a blessing and an honor to be able to see the growth of the organization and I can't wait to share some of the other things that we're getting into…
Maddy: Yes, yes.
Wendie: …as well, so yeah.
Maddy: Awesome. Okay, so you started as a volunteer, which is really cool…
Wendie: Yeah.
Maddy: …that you maybe just found an opportunity to get involved in the community. How long ago was that? Did you mention?
Wendie: That was about five and a half years ago.
Maddy: Okay.
Wendie: Well, actually, five and a half years ago that I started working as a paid, in a paid position. But I think I started volunteering maybe 2018 so it would have been a few years before then. And actually, at that time, I was consulting. I'd gone back to school. My bachelor's degree is chemical engineering.
Maddy: Wow.
Wendie: So, I went back to school and got a master's in HR. And I thought I was going to be working in for-profit in the HR realm. And then there was just another path for me that led me to nonprofits and so I started consulting with nonprofits. And then I was consulting with FROM actually for free doing in-kind services. And then the executive director at that time was like, hey, do think you might be interested? And I was like, uh yeah. So, and I just, I'm a very spirit led person and so I just felt God was making a pathway for me and I didn't know it at the time, but here we are.
Maddy: Just goes to show you never know.
Wendie: You never know!
Maddy: Chemical engineering to… That's quite the jump. Could you talk about what, and, and for those of you that don't realize flat river outreach ministries is
Wendie: To a non-profit
Maddy: Yes.
Wendie: Here we are.
Maddy: Love that. Could you talk about what… and or those of you that don't realize Flat River Outreach Ministries is kind of a mouthful.
Wendie: Yes.
Maddy: So, you refer to it as FROM, correct?
Wendie: Yes, yes.
Maddy: Okay, so moving forward, if you hear that, that is what we're referring to. Could you talk about what you guys do, the services you provide, maybe opportunities for volunteering and all that good stuff?
Wendie: So, we are a wraparound service. Our philosophy is a hand up, not a handout. And so, we have services in a couple of different areas. So, one is we come and support the families. And if families need backpacks, Christmas distribution, those types of things, we support the families. We also connect people with different resources, both within Flat River Outreach Ministries or FROM, or even in the Greater Grand Rapids area, just trying to connect people with resources that'll help them. We also offer housing, which we'll talk more about in a moment. We do try to keep people in their homes so that might include some financial services to pay for utility or some minor repairs to help keep them in their home so that they can save money and stay in a safe environment. Those are the main areas that we offer. Transportation is another resource that we offer as well. We serve the Lowell Area Community School District. And one of the very exciting things that we've been doing is housing. So, in 20, let's see, 2016, we purchased some land in Lowell for those folks that go to Frosty Boy in Lowell, it's right across the street from there.
Maddy: I think I drove... okay so, I don't mean to interrupt.
Wendie: Yeah, no, please.
Maddy: This is very exciting because Ben had mentioned this housing project.
Wendie: Yes.
Maddy: And he told me where it was. So, I'm driving here. And I’m like, I’m going to find there they're doing this because it's a very exciting project.
Wendie: Yes, yes.
Maddy: And I did see where you guys were building. So please continue on this project.
Wendie: Yes, yes! So, in 2016, we purchased the land and there were a couple of houses at the time. One of the houses we did have to demolish because it just wasn't safe for people to live in. And so, we maintained and have continued to renovate the other house. In the meantime, we also had this other vacant land. And so, it's been, you know, just a wonderful, wonderful opportunity to bring the community together, to really just come around folks in our community that are in need of housing. And so, now we're building three new buildings with 17 units. And what's incredible is the current building we have, it offers studio and one-bedroom units. So, we really struggle to support families in that, in that building, but the new buildings will have up to three bedrooms. And even the one-bedroom units will allow up to two people based on the square footage. So, we're really excited to be able to serve all people. You know, when through this journey and my job here, one of the things that I did for a period of time was actually the property management for the existing building that we own down there. And I had a young woman who was just trying to put her life back together and trying to figure things out and she had partial custody of her daughter, who was three years old. And the room that she had applied for was just a small, very, you know, just a studio unit. And I checked with a lawyer, and I was like, hey, can I, can I rent this out to her? And it made me, it made me, it was very upsetting to have to say no because you know, even though she's small, even though, you know, that she's only there every other weekend, we can't allow that. So, I'm really, really excited to be able to offer these other units so that no matter who people are, right, we have a place for them. And then we can also, one of the things that's unique about our housing is not only is it affordable, which is great, but it's also supportive. And so, what that means is that we come alongside people, and we share other resources. So, all of those other resources that are available then are also available to our tenants. And then if they're struggling with something, maybe it's a workforce development, maybe it's a credit issue, maybe it's, you know, whatever it might be, we can come alongside and help them be successful and meet their goals, what they want to try to do in their lives. So, it's really a very rewarding, and again, it's such an honor and a blessing for me personally to get a front row seat to some of this stuff. It's kind of fun.
Maddy: Yeah, I mean, you guys are doing a little bit of everything and it’s such a big project. And I know it's been a long time coming for you guys, and the work and the fundraising and all of the things that go into that. And not only, like you said, the housing, but you're supporting people in other ways and continuing to do that. So, it's all encompassing so they continue to succeed in their lives.
Wendie: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Maddy: Yeah, that's really neat. So, what was also very exciting news is that I know that you guys were awarded a PFCU foundation grant to go towards this.
Wendie: Yes, we were.
Maddy: Which is awesome.
Wendie: Thank you very much for that. We really appreciate it.
Maddy: So, it's just community organizations and community members coming together to support other people where they're at. And it's neat to see.
Wendie: It's been really exciting to just see, you know, we have folks that come out and do in-kind. We had a couple local business owners who did the land preparation…
Maddy: Yeah
Wendie: …for us, right? Shout out to Timpson Transport and Earthworm Excavating. Those guys came in and took care of the land preparation for us. We've got other folks that are working on security cameras for us and they're helping us out, giving us some in-kind services, things like that. So, it really is, truly, the whole community is coming together to make this happen. And I've said this before, but I feel like I get the chance to stand in the midst of a modern-day miracle. You don't get to see those things very often. You read about it or whatever, but I just feel like just with the hearts that are getting changed and the passion that people are pouring into this project is just, it's such an honor to be able to see it.
Maddy: Yeah. So, speaking of, you know, businesses doing those in-kind donations of their time and services, how can just your everyday community member donate, whether it's financially or with their time, or if they have items that you guys accept. Can you speak to that a little?
Wendie: Absolutely. So, there's many ways to support what we're doing in this and to support how we are coming alongside our neighbors and our community. So of course you can even just donate items to our thrift store. We have a thrift store that supports our ministries and that's what allows us to be able to do as much as we do is the thrift store and we need shoppers. So, if you ever just need a reason to go shop, just say, hey, I'm supporting the community by shopping in this place.
Maddy: I support that- thrifting.
Wendie: Yes!
Maddy: I love thrifting.
Wendie: And we've got great prices and great value. And it's a wonderful experience. So, definitely, you know, shopping in the store, donating items to the store. We also have whenever we're doing a drive for one of our programs, we do a Christmas program. We do a backpack program. And I will say some of our programs we do a little bit different. One of our values is dignity and another one of our values is empowerment. And so, what we try to do is provide the opportunity for our participants to choose for themselves. So, for example, our food pantry is a client choice food pantry. So, rather than getting a box of items, the participants are allowed to come in and choose what items they know their family members will eat so we're not wasting food, right? And in terms of our Christmas distribution, we want to try to keep the family dynamic intact as much as possible. And so, what we do is we invite whoever the big people are in the family, in the household, to come shop for the children. And then the children view the big people as the providers still. It's not coming from FROM. They don't need to know we were involved at all.
Maddy: Right.
Wendie: The idea is we want to maintain that dignity, that empowerment. You know, the parents are choosing exactly what items the children are getting. And so, a lot of the things that we do are very intentional to try to maintain that consistency with our values, such as empowerment, dignity. We just want to make sure that, you know, it's tough to ask for help. It really is. I mean, if you put yourself into someone else's shoes and needing to humble yourself and come and ask for help, it's really difficult to ask for help for some of our folks. Most of our folks, I should say. And so, making it as welcoming and easy as possible, it just makes it better for everybody.
Maddy: Yeah.
Wendie: So, yeah, so you can donate to the programs. You can donate to the thrift store. You can volunteer; we love volunteers. We love volunteers. So, we have over 300 volunteers and we need more.
Maddy: Wow!
Wendie: Yes, we definitely need more.
Maddy: Okay.
Wendie: Last year we had about 39,000 volunteer hours. So, the equivalent of 20 full-time people. So, that's a lot and we need more.
Maddy: Yep.
Wendie: I mean, that's the reality. We need more because that's how we keep our store going, right? So, pretty much anything when you go into our store, you see the items on the shelves. They've been put there by a volunteer, they've been priced by a volunteer, they've been sorted by a volunteer, they may have been cleaned by a volunteer, they may have been repaired by a volunteer. So, all of those things, we need people to do all of those things. Even our programs, to run our programs, we need volunteers. We need volunteers at our front desk. We've got some great folks now. I don't know if anybody we haven't been able to find some way, even if you're less able-bodied, we can find things for people that are a need, that are true need that we need. So, definitely volunteering is another option as well.
Maddy: Awesome.
Wendie: So, if people are interested in volunteering, which we again would love, love, love to have more volunteers, they can go to our website, which is www, I probably don't need to say the www these days, but anyway, fromlowell.org. So F-R-O-M-L-O-W-E-L-L.org. And there's a volunteer, I think it might even pop right up there for you to be able to select that, you fill out an interest form. And then we do a quick background check, that's required. And then we'll follow up and give you a call or an email and schedule orientation, give you a tour around the building and then you can decide where you wanna get plugged in at and then we proceed with training and then you're on your way.
Maddy: Perfect.
Wendie: And people volunteer with us anywhere from a couple hours a month to a couple hours a week. So, any range, or once a year, we've got some folks that are really keen on volunteering at a Christmas program or Christmas distribution, for example. And so, then they just come once a year and do that. So, whatever you're interested in, we have a broad range of opportunities. So, it's just a matter of what you're interested in.
Maddy: That's awesome. And that's good, I mean, that's good to know. If people are like, well, I can't do, I can't come in every week, or I can't dedicate a ton of time.
Wendie: Right.
Maddy: But even just that once a year is helpful.
Wendie: Even once a year for Christmas distribution. We have backpack distributions coming up on August 7th. So, even if you want to be around and hand out backpacks.
Maddy: Yeah, August 7th.
Wendie: August 7th.
Maddy: All right. So, could you give any insight as it relates to your impact on the community? Do you have any interesting numbers you could share?
Wendie: Yes, of course I do. So, our food pantry, we have about 300 visits a month. And so, what that means is that folks come into our space, it's like a market, basically, like a grocery store. They select items for their household that they believe that they'll consume. And they can do this twice in one month. And the reason why we have it twice in one month is we learned in the pandemic and continued beyond the pandemic is that we've got a number of people who they're kind of teetering on this space where, yep, they can make it, but if something happens to disrupt their apple cart, then everything kind of falls through. So, it could be an unexpected medical bill, it could be something with a car issue, could be a job situation, you know, get laid off, whatever. There's a number of different things that can happen that can kind of just disrupt a household. And so, then the food pantry is a great and easy way to receive services. You just come in and you shop, gives you, you know, up to maybe five days of food, three to five days of food for your household, depending on what you select and that sort of thing. But it's just a way to kind of, I like to think of it as Michigan roads have a lot of potholes. We're all familiar with potholes. A family encounters a pothole, right? And so, what we do is we fill it for them and let them be on their way. So, they might use the food pantry. And like I said, we serve about 300, we have 300 visits a month for that. We also for, I mentioned backpacks earlier, we serve about 300 kids for the backpack program. So, we assemble, and again, and so it's, the family's encountering a situation where they maybe can't afford in that time. So, we help fill in the gaps and fill in that pothole for them by providing the backpacks and the supplies that the students need. And our approach is we want to provide everything the student needs. So, we literally go to the website and work with the schools to understand what are those class lists, and we get everything off of that list so that child can go back to school feeling confident and secure and knowing that they have what they need for that next year in school and hopefully feel a little excited. Who knows? So about 300 kids for the backpacks is what we serve and for Christmas about 450 children is what we serve and a total of 300 families is what we serve each year for Christmas. So, these are families that we give them a Christmas dinner. So, they've got a ham or a turkey, they've got potatoes, they've got pie. What's Christmas without pie? So, an apple pie and you know this is what I love about what we do. The pies are all made by the wrestling team here in town.
Maddy: Oh, that's so cool.
Wendie: Yeah, isn't that? And then we get turkeys from a number of different businesses will drop off turkeys.
Maddy: Just another example of people coming together.
Wendie: It's just a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful thing. And you know, we've seen the usage of our food pantry go up, just like most of the other food pantries have over the last couple of years. And January was a tough month. We usually see it tapering off a little bit this time of year, but it's actually not. It's food, I mean, we're all feeling the expenses for food and the prices of food going up and so, of course, our families are hit harder than some of us are. So, we just want to make sure that they still can get healthy food, right? We're very intentional about fresh produce in our food pantry because we know that's the most healthy and we don't limit them on that because again, if you can get your children to eat healthy fresh vegetables when they're young, they're more likely to do it as an adult.
Maddy: Yes.
Wendie: And so, it's important to try to do that. So, we encourage our participants to take as much as they will use. And I would add to that overall, the number of households that we serve each year across all of our programs is about a thousand households. So, we're really out into the community, doing what we can to walk alongside our neighbors and support them and help them in any way that we can.
Maddy: Yeah, I love that. You guys are doing so much. I'm going to need a tour after this.
Wendie: I will definitely give you a tour!
Maddy: Because I want to see all the things that are going on. Real quickly, if someone is in need of any of your services, what steps should they take? Do they just, do they go online? Do they walk through the doors? What does that kind of look like?
Wendie: There's a couple of different options. So, we do have a lobby that's open Monday through Thursday, 10 to 4. So, you can stop by the lobby and then you'll likely make an appointment. You can also email, if you want to email info@fromlowell.org, they'll get you connected to the right person. So, then they can, if they wanna receive services, they can call our main number and use extension 120 and they'll get connected to John and then he can have an appointment with them and talk through some options. We do have an income requirement for the services that we have and we do have a geography requirement as well for the folks that are living in the Lowell Area School District. But I would encourage you if you or you know someone who is looking for some resources, sometimes we can find other resources, even though it may not be in our community. We are aware of neighboring communities and what resources are available and at least offer a place to get started. Because sometimes that's the biggest challenge people face is, I don't even know where to start. Like, who do I even talk to? Where do I go? And actually, if you call 211, which is a United Way service, they will connect you to us as well if you live in the Lowell Area School District. So, that might be a good place to start as well. But you can also, of course, call us direct.
Maddy: Easy enough. Awesome.
Wendie: Yeah.
Maddy: Is there anything else you wanted to share while we're here?
Wendie: I really appreciate the partnership of PFCU and just the willingness to support the community. So, it's wonderful to be able to work with people who care about the community just as much as we do. It's pretty awesome. So, appreciate you guys.
Maddy: Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for having me here today.
It was great to sit down with Wendie, Executive Director of Flat River Outreach Ministries. They are doing absolutely amazing things for their community and its members. Visit their website fromlowell.org. That's F R O M L O W E L L dot org, if you're interested in learning more or volunteering. Also, I did get that tour and if you're ever in the area, definitely check out their thrift store. It's huge. And like Wendie said, it makes up a large portion of their funding as 100% of the proceeds goes towards their mission. So, win, win! Thanks for listening.
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